03 August 2012

Getz/Gilberto perform "Ipanema" and "Desifinado"


This is another record album that has traveled with me for 50+ years from Minnesota to Massachusetts to Texas to Kentucky to Indiana to Missouri and finally to Wisconsin.  Now I'll save two cuts of it here before saying goodbye to it.

"The Girl From Ipanema" was made popular by a short 45-rpm version that zoomed in the pop charts, but I prefer this more detailed and nuanced presentation from the album.
[The album] won the 1965 Grammy Awards for Best Album of the Year, Best Jazz Instrumental Album - Individual or Group and Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical. "The Girl from Ipanema" also won the award for Record of the Year in 1965. This was the first time a jazz album received Album of the Year. It was the last jazz album to win the award until Herbie Hancock's River: The Joni Letters 43 years later, in 2008.
The other cut I'm saving is this version of "Desifinado":


I never knew what the Portugese title or lyrics meant until writing this post (translation here).

11 comments:

  1. Just downloaded this from iTunes. I had forgotten just how fabulous this was!! Thanks for the reminder. Great music remains great music!!

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  2. Ola... I grew up with this LP, my Dad would play it really loud on his gigantic stereo and I still have a serious Jones for these tunes. He made all the diff in my musical taste spectrum, introducing me to Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66, Eydie Gorme y Trio Los Panchos, Herb Alpert... you get my drift. As a young'un in the 1960's, this music was as important to me as The Seeds, The Count V and ? and The Mysterians. ORALE'.

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  3. This is my all-time favorite music album! It never gets old, it's never not sexy, it's never anything but wonderful. There's never a second when it doesn't sound great, when any other musicians are any better in their field, and when Astrug Gilberto sounds anything but delectable. Did I tell you I like it?

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  4. I wouldn't just throw it away

    http://www.ebay.com/itm/Getz-and-Gilberto-with-Antonio-Carlos-Jobim-LP-Getz-Gilberto-1963-Verve-/230833833948?pt=Music_on_Vinyl&hash=item35bec4c7dc

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  5. It just occurred to me that 1965 was 47 years ago, so assuming the girl from Ipanema was of the age of legal consent (47 + 18) she's now eligible to collect a full social security pension (if she had immigrated to the US).

    I will now begin to drink seriously.

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    Replies
    1. She just turned 50, and could still turn heads IMO:

      http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/aug/01/helo-pinheiro-girl-from-ipanema?newsfeed=true

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    2. Oops, the SONG turned 50! She was 17 around the time the song was first performed.

      Delete
  6. "Astrud Gilberto" as a "station" on Pandora plays a very pleasant selection of samba music, including many nice tracks I'd never heard before. It's one of the ones we play as background music for housework or cooking.

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  7. This is a standard in the Bosa Nova style of jazz even though samba is mentioned in the song....
    just saying...

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  8. I am portuguese, and I promise you, the translation on the link you posted is completely wrong. All of it. Sorry...
    I found you a somewhat rough translation on the video in the following link.
    http://palcoprincipal.sapo.pt/bandasMain/caetano_veloso_gal_costa_gilberto_gil_e_maria_bethania/video/fgZvREsoTVM

    thanks for TYWKIWDBI, Isabel

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  9. look up the version of Desifanado by Blossom Dearie (who did some schoolhouse rock songs, so you may recognize her rather uniquely quirky style) or Ella Fitzgerald. No, not the original, but quite nice, and in English.

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